Auston Matthews Reveals the Leafs best line in their opening night victory

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Tom Banks
October 12, 2023 (1:06 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs opening night game against Montreal was expected to be a blowout, but instead, they treated the fans to theatre of the highest order, with a major comeback leading to a dramatic 6-5 win in a shootout.

Forward depth

While it was Auston Matthews that led the way with a hat trick, he was asked after the game who he believed the team's best line was, and his answer may surprise you.

"Kampfer's line was obviously our best and most consistent line tonight and that's always a positive. Little things there are a positive for us," said Matthews, referring to the Kampf line.

The Kampf line got the Leafs offensive comeback started with a Noah Gregor goal to get them back to a 3-1 deficit, and as you like to see from your fourth line, they did all the small things that make them effective.

Plenty to clean up

Unsurprisingly though, Matthews wasn't happy with the entire game, as he revealed the team have plenty to clean up, especially when they do battle with stronger competition.

"I think there's definitely a lot of things we can clean up. Just taking care of the puck and turnover stuff and little awareness stuff that we can be better at I think it's just those habits that you build in camp that you want to clean up early... it's nice to get the win but definitely a lot we can take from here." - Matthews on using the home opener as a building block

With 81 games in the season to go, there's plenty of time for them to continue building, and if they can find some consistency on their blue line and in net, they'll be a force to be reckoned with.